Step Twelve, Stand Up
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day 823a: One hurtful piece of paper leaves Kurt no other option than to give reply. - Paper Heart series


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 39th cycle. Now cycle 40!_

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><p><em><strong>INTRODUCING "CHEAT SHEET" - <strong>If you want to know ahead of time when a certain series will be updated next, just reassemble the link below and check out the list, save it, print it, bookmark it, whatever you need!  
>Go to: <span>gleekathon [dot] tumblr [dot] com [slash] cheatsheet<span>_

_** UPDATED WITH CYCLE 40 CHEAT SHEET ** Check it out to find out about **shift days**, starting in cycle 40!_

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><p><em><strong>This is a shift day [see above].<strong> There will be another upload this afternoon: The Ties That Bind, chapter 4._

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><p><strong>"Step Twelve, Stand Up"<br>Kurt & Brittany  
>Paper Heart series #13 (following 'Step Eleven...') <strong>

They were all starting to look forward to summer, to a time when they could stop having to concern themselves with the madness that was school at the moment. It was already a bit of a frown fest in the choir room, after they'd lost Regionals and lost their shot at Nationals. It had been comforting to know they would still get to come back in the fall and try again, but then the part about the loss and lack of Nationals would come back at them.

If that wasn't enough, there were the whispers, and the looks, turned to Brittany, even after weeks had gone by. She was easy prey, if what they saw and heard was any indication. It was a miracle Santana hadn't been suspended for retaliation yet. They could all see how much she was dying for the chance to rip a new one on whoever dared to even think wrong about Brittany, but the blonde had begged her not to do anything crazy, that it wasn't worth it. Santana had agreed, begrudgingly.

In and around that time, a number of jocks and Cheerios had found their lockers mysteriously overrun with anything from water, to dirt, and in one case a whole lot of toothpaste… No contents were safe.

That day, Kurt had come out of class looking for Brittany so they could head to their next class. He found her coming out of class, distractedly walking as she was looking at a sheet of paper. Coming up behind her he could sort of see there was a drawing on it.

"Bored in class?" he asked, and she startled, suddenly folding up the paper and trying to stuff it in her back pocket. "What, you don't want to… show me?" He'd managed to get around enough to see her face and now he saw she'd been crying. It didn't take long to add things up. "What was on that paper?" he asked, trying to console her.

"Nothing, just doodling, a-and then I thought about m-my old cat and I got all baby hormoned…" she pointed to her face.

"Britt, has anyone ever told you that you're not good at lying?"

"Oh, yeah, lots of people…" she obliged, then realized what she'd said.

"Show me?" he asked, indicating her back pocket. "Please?" She didn't want to, but she fished out the paper and held it out to him, sniffling.

"It's no big deal," she insisted.

"Want to tell that to your face, I don't think it believes you," he pointed out as he unfolded the page and looked at it.

Whoever had been the "artist" here had not left identification to chance. Despite all other elements, the subject drawn on the sheet was clearly meant to be Brittany. How she was portrayed, that was another problem entirely. Kurt's face had solidified in a quiet rage.

"Who drew this?" he asked her.

"Kurt…" she shook her head.

"Just give me his name, I won't bother him long, I swear," he was much too calm. She wouldn't say it, but her eyes darted ahead, and he looked. He spotted him and looked back. "Oliver?" he asked, pointing. She wasn't replying, but he could tell a lot of that was probably she didn't want him to act on it. But he wasn't going to let this slide. He cut past her.

"No, wait," she begged, following behind.

"Hey, Oliver!" Kurt's voice had been louder than he'd thought it would be. Immediately the hall got quiet.

"What do you want, Hummel?" Oliver frowned.

"I just came to return your… artwork," he showed the drawing.

"It doesn't belong to me, I gave it to her," he nodded to Brittany, almost laughing. "Here…" he made to hand it back to her and Kurt snatched it away, crumpling it up and tossing it in Oliver's face. Now he was laughing, at Kurt.

"Leave her alone, alright? You're making it pretty hard for me to believe right now but for her sake I'm going to assume there's a human being in there somewhere…"

"I don't think he's going to go for that," Brittany whispered to Kurt.

"All we're trying to do here is make sure we're not going to get dragged in the mud once she figures out which one of us she had her little… misfortune with," he pointed to her stomach and she covered it protectively. "I mean, who knows at this point? She probably won't be able to anyway, so many options, so little brain cells…"

"Look who's talking," Kurt sneered.

"At least I know I've been spared," Oliver declared.

"And the world heaves a collective sigh of relief. Of course I wouldn't worry. We were on the football team together, I've seen what you've got to work with." The gathered 'audience' burst at this, even Brittany, though she remembered herself after a moment.

"Kurt, maybe you shouldn't piss him off. His arms are huge and you look like you'd bruise easy," she whispered.

"I'm okay, I've got this," he whispered back.

"I'd listen to her if I were you. I know you're not too familiar with girls here, but see this one's the one you call when you've got no one else lined up, you know?"

"You wouldn't know a thing about a girl like her if she took pity on your sorry ass," Kurt was looking like he could barely keep himself from taking a swing at him.

"Oh, like you would?" Oliver himself looked halfway between mocking and bracing.

"I would and did," Kurt went out with zero hesitation. The onlookers fell in an instant hush as they processed what had just been claimed.

"You're not seriously going to pretend that you could even…"

"If anyone's pretending here it's not me," Kurt stood his ground. "So you can stop 'searching.' I'm the father." There was not a single sound in that hallway, and then a buzz of whispers broke.

"Nice try," Oliver scoffed.

"It's true," Brittany spoke up.

"I know I probably don't look like much to you, but you mess with my family, and then we're going to have a problem. And if that's not enough to persuade you, I know a Cheerio who would love nothing more than to make it her business to show you the way. For future reference, that goes for everyone," he was looking to Oliver but addressing all those gathered.

"Can we go now?" Brittany asked him.

"Yeah, come on," he switched back to his calmer, caring voice the moment he looked to her. The rest of them parted to let the two through. The moment they'd cleared earshot, Kurt let out a breath, displaying the nerves he'd hidden so well before. "Well so much for that…"

"Are you okay?" she asked, linking her arm with his as they headed to class.

"My legs should stop shaking soon. What about you, how are you?" She smiled.

"Better now."

THE END

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><p><strong>AN: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
><strong>**In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
><strong>******always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!******


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